June 23, 2010

NJIT Professor Heads Panel Studying Sudden Car Acceleration

by ssavage

Louis J. Lanzerotti, PhD, a distinguished research professor in the department of physics at NJIT, will lead the 13-member panel organized by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies (www.nationalacademies.org) to identify possible causes of unintended acceleration in vehicles in the aftermath of Toyota's large recalls. The group, which will hold its first meeting June 30 and July 1, 2010 in Washington, DC, includes notable engineers, scientists and auto safety experts. They will review electronic systems across the auto industry.

The study is part of the government's work to learn what led to the recall of more than eight million Toyotas because of sudden unintended acceleration. The review is expected to last 15 months.

"We are all proud of Dr. Lanzerotti's continued contributions to fundamental and applied science and technology. He brings a very broad background to a critical analytical task that has implications for the safety of millions of people," said NJIT Provost Ian Gatley.

Lanzerotti http://www.njit.edu/news/experts/lanzerotti.php is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is retired a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff of Lucent Technologies, where his responsibilities included supervision of laboratories and research and development. His principal research interests include space plasmas, geophysics, and engineering problems related to the impacts of atmospheric and space processes and the space environment on space and terrestrial technologies.

He has served as chair of a number of NRC Boards and Committees, including the Space Studies Board, the Committee for the Assessment of Options for Extending the Life of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Committee on the Safety and Security of Commercial Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage, and the Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board. He has been principal investigator on NASA and commercial space satellite missions, and is currently principal investigator (PI) for instruments on the NASA dual spacecraft Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission scheduled for a May 2012 launch.